University of California, Davis – WBF by Flad Architects

“The new facility raises the bar for environmental design and construction of laboratory and process buildings within the University of California. It also serves as a model for industries throughout the nation that is committed both to environmental excellence and production efficiency.” Neal Van Alfen, Dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences”.

Agricultural heritage and scientific inquiry define a new place and new ways of learning for programs in viticulture, brewing, and food processing at UC Davis. The Teaching and Research Winery and the August A. Busch III Brewing and Food Science Laboratory (WBF) completes the Robert Mondavi Institute for Food and Wine (RMI). The building looks both toward an academic community and beyond to the region’s agricultural heritage.

Exterior View

WBF is inspired by those farm structures where clarity is fundamental to sustainability and informed simplicity can attain the poetic. WBF is an extended research and teaching environment, integrating bench-top science with applied process technologies. Unique for its type and broadly transformative in its potential, this facility carries academic investigation to industrial application. Researchers can directly test theories and validate new processes for cultivation and production in industrial conditions.

Barrel storage

The building is, as well, an extended learning environment, educating students in sustainable production processes and operating procedures. It is a living model, where the effectiveness of energy efficient technologies is directly monitored and demonstrated in a highly sustainable setting. Entirely donor-funded, this is the first LEED® Platinum building on this campus and the third in the UC system.

Brewery lab

It houses the world’s first LEED Platinum winery, first LEED Platinum brewery and first LEED Platinum food-processing pilot plant. It is one of about a half dozen laboratories and the first process science building to attain this level of performance. Platinum performance required specific innovations that engaged the vision of industry donors and addressed the demands of an arid climate. These features include:

Capture and storage of 176,000 gallons of rainwater satisfies annual irrigation requirements and all nonpotable demands. This is the first large-scale rainwater harvesting system in the region to accommodate both uses.

A Clean-in-Place (CIP) system similar to that used in pharmaceutical manufacture collects, treats, and reuses all cleaning water, reducing demand by about 80 percent.

Research fermentors are piped for CO2 capture, allowing later conversion to solid state.

The building is a total learning environment. Real time data on metering of building systems is displayed. Preparing future leaders for industry, students are directly involved in the operation and monitoring of these systems.